Bag snatch led to death, court is told

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English backpacker Caroline Stuttle was bashed and hurled, screaming, over a bridge to her death during a bag snatch, a court was told yesterday.

Ian Douglas Previte, 32, has pleaded not guilty to the robbery and murder of Ms Stuttle in Bundaberg on April 10, 2002.

Prosecutor Peter Feeney told the jury the petite 19-year-old backpacker could only have been thrown from the nine-metre high bridge over Burnett River because her head barely came up to the railing.

"There was an episode of considerable violence on the walkway," Mr Feeney said in his opening address to the Supreme Court trial in Bundaberg. "Previte ignored her screams of terror and forced her over the railing."

Mr Feeney said Previte, a drug addict, had been sitting on a bench on the bridge about 9pm as Ms Stuttle walked by and had stalked her, intending to snatch her bag to get money for drugs. Previte bashed her and threw her over the railing. She died instantly when her skull was fractured and her spine severed.

Mr Feeney said Previte had made three confessions to the killing: once to jail inmates, once to police, and in writing on a picnic table in Bundaberg.

Ms Stuttle, of York, was on a working holiday with a childhood friend and had only been in Bundaberg for three days when tragedy struck.

She was returning to the caravan park where she was staying after telephoning her boyfriend in England.

Ms Stuttle's brother, Richard, attended court and her father Alan is expected next week.

Outside court, her brother said the family missed her every day. "It gets a little bit easier but it's still very, very difficult most days," he said.

Justice Peter Dutney warned the jury yesterday to be dispassionate about the case, and not to make Previte a scapegoat for Ms Stuttle's killing. The trial continues.